Beyond Na Pali Press Kit

This press kit contains:

Book Pitch

Book Press Release

Short Author Bio

Long Author Bio

Media Presence

Topics of Discussion

Questions and Answers

Similar Books

Book Summary

Audience for Beyond Na Pali

Book Pitch

Beyond Na Pali: A Catuionary Tale of
Sex, Drugs and Backpacking is the first novel in the Skyler Series and set on the Na Pali
Coast of Kauai. After Skyler Briggs is
forced to quit his job before he fails a drug test, he decides to go on an
extended, backpacking vacation to the remote Kalalau Beach where vagabonds live
illegally. Skyler hooks up with an
Australian traveler and their casual sex and drug use leads to problems with
dire consequences. Away from his
pedestrian white collar job, Skyler faces many situations that challenge him to
grow and rethink many aspects of his life.

Skyler Briggs finds outrageous
adventure in the new novel Beyond Na
Pali: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs and Backpacking. Set at remote Kalalau
Beach in Na Pali State Park in Kauai, the novel explores drug use, extended
travel and quick love. After quitting his job, twenty-something Skyler wants to
live an exciting life by going to an exotic, nude beach where people live off
the land. He falls in love with a
free-wheeling Australian woman who is on a year of travel. She shows him how to
have fun, hunt and fish. Their casual drug use leads to big problems when they
go too far.

The author Scott G. Kipp adds:
“Briggs is a typical worker who wants more out of life than he can find working
in a tan cubicle. He quits his job and goes on the first, big journey of his
life with a beautiful, blonde Australian. They make love and get high on their
dream beach before paradise turns to hell.”

The 205-page book is full of
action, drama and romance. This is the first book in the Beyond Series of
novels set in the most beautiful places in the world like Kauai, Peru, Nepal
and Portugal. The novels document the unexpected twists and turns of Skyler in real,
exciting and exotic places. Trouble is always around the corner in these easy
to read, fun novels.

Excerpt from book: “I remind
myself to take one step at a time. I take the tiniest steps of my life and kick
my feet into the trail to make sure I don’t slip. I make slow progress and get
farther around the large, curved face of the cliff where it becomes even more
exposed and windy. I feel alone and lost and can’t even see Shirley. I get into
a trance-like state where I’m totally focused on staying alive and on the
trail. One shuffling step after another like I’m walking on a ledge of an
eighty-story skyscraper.”

About the Author

Scott G. Kipp wrote the book
while working a full time engineering job and finished editing in Peru while
researching the next novel in the Beyond Series. Kipp is a veteran traveler who writes novels
based in the most beautiful places in the world. Kipp lives in Santa Barbara,
California and backpacks all around the world. He is an Eagle Scout and was a
backpacking guide at Philmont Scout Ranch before working in multiple national
parks. He’s lived overseas as an international student, English teacher and
engineer. He travels extensively in and out of his 36’ toy hauler RV.

Kipp is ready to speak online or
in person about his books, travels and RVing.

Short Author Bio

Scott G. Kipp is the author of
the Beyond Series and travels extensively to research his novels that are based
in the most beautiful places on Earth. After retiring from electrical
engineering, Kipp traveled for sixteen months straight to research the next
novel in the series that will be based near Machu Picchu. Find out more about his adventures at www.skippstrips.com.

Long Author Bio

Scott G. Kipp retired from a twenty-five-year career in electrical
engineering in 2018. Kipp wrote this novel—and others—in his spare time while
working as an engineer. As a traveling author, he plans extended travels to the
Na Pali Coast and other amazing places like Japan, Peru and Nepal while writing
the Beyond Series.

Kipp grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, in a large Catholic family and
community. He was a good student and Eagle Scout and worked as a backpacking
guide at Philmont Scout Ranch in the summer of 1985. He went to Kansas State
University for a couple years before moving to Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Park to gain California residency. He also worked in Death Valley,
Heavenly Valley and Harveys Casino before attending Cal Poly SLO. He got his
bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering with a focus on fiber optics.
To put himself through college, he did two internships in the Silicon Valley
and was an international exchange student at Kingston Polytechnic in London.

His first job out of college was testing and building remote sensing
satellites for Hughes Aircraft in Santa Barbara, California. He resigned after
a couple years and took a four-month tour of New Zealand before driving Route
66 and touring the US for six months. He moved to Hsinchu, Taiwan where he
taught English and eventually sold fiber optic cables. He met and married Grace
Tsai and the young couple returned to the US and bought a conversion van. They
traveled the US in their blue velvet van before settling in Arizona, Colorado
and Kansas City. They sold most of their belongings before moving into a big,
fifth wheel RV. The Kipps telecommuted from around the US in the RV before
settling in Santa Barbara, California.

In Broomfield, Colorado, Kipp worked for Cielo Communications marketing
fiber optic transceivers before working the majority of his career developing
standards for high-speed, fiber optic networks for McDATA, Brocade and
eventually Broadcom. He standardized fiber optic transceivers, links, networks,
security and management. He traveled worldwide for standards meetings and
usually tacked on extra travel over eighteen years with extended trips through
Taiwan, Nepal, Europe and the United States.

Kipp has written Broadband Entertainment, The Last Yankee Dodger and
other unreleased novels. Kipp travels in his RV and CR-V extensively and you
can track his recent adventures at www.skippstrips.com.

Media Presence

Scott G. Kipp has promoted his
books and other content in radio interviews, press interviews, at professional conferences,
in newspapers and with Internet-based video. He produced a book and documentary
about his father’s professional baseball career. He has also written newspaper articles for
the Iola Register and Yates Center News.

Topics of Discussion

Topics to discuss in an
interview include:

What inspires Skyler Briggs –
the protagonist of the novel?

Why is the novel based in Kauai?

What is so attractive about
Kalalau Beach in Na Pali State Park that people live their illegally?

Is there a big difference
between smoking weed and crystal meth?

Have you traveled to the places
in your novels?

Is the book pro-drug or
anti-drug?

Has the legalization of
marijuana been good or bad?

How does the use of marijuana
influence the book?

How is sex involved in the book?

How is backpacking foundational
in this novel and your life?

Did you resign from your job
because of marijuana use?

Are many engineers also writers?
It seems like a contradiction?

Why is the book a cautionary
tale of sex, drugs and backpacking?

What is the philosophy of the
book?

Questions and Answers

What drives Skyler Briggs?

Skyler is a typical
twenty-something who smokes weed casually and is unfulfilled in his work
life. What drives him is his curiosity
for the world. He wants to live an
extraordinary life, so that is what I give him in this book. He is rather naïve in this first novel and
will become more ambitious and driven in future novels. He’s looking for something more in life and
will find it physically, mentally and spiritually.

Where is the novel based?

The novel starts in my home town
of Santa Barbara, but Skyler quickly moves on to Kauai. Skyler teams up with Shirley, an Australian
on a year of travel, to go backpacking for 11 miles to Kalalau Beach. Kalalau Beach is a legendary backpacking
destination and one of the most beautiful places on Earth with waterfalls,
cliffs and an amazing long stretch of beach with nice waves. To get to the
beach, they have to traverse trail across a cliff face that is known as
Crawler’s Ledge. Crawler’s Ledge is a
dramatic location where cliffs rise above and below the trail that falls
hundreds of feet down to the ocean.

What does Na Pali mean?

Na Pali means “The Cliffs” in
Hawaiian and describes the four thousand foot cliffs that rise from the ocean
in Napali Coast State Wilderness Park. The main confusion about Na Pali is how
to spell it. It has been spelled with a
space, without a space, with a bar over the first “a” and with a “~” over the
first “a”. It is very confusing.

Does Na Pali Coast State Wilderness
Park have a drug and illegal resident problem?

Yes. The park used to have many illegal residents
in the park and officials are much more vigilant now about kicking illegal
residents out of the park. Starting in
2017, the park officials clean out the illegal residents monthly now to return
the site closer to its original natural state.
Many illegal drugs have been used and grown in and around the park. One of the most common problems is parking at
the trailhead while you backpack to Kalalau.
Many cars have been broken into at the Kalalau Trailhead at Ke’e beach
and I used that reality in the book.

Why do you have a tough
Australian woman in the book?

I have met many Australian women
in my travels and they are amazing travelers.
They often travel for long periods of time. Australians are very free people, like
Americans, and I wanted to portray a different kind of woman as the heroine of
the book. Having Shirley be a hunter
added a different dimension to her character.
She could do anything – or she thought she could.

Who is Luke Surfwalker?

Luke is the antagonist of the
book and a drug dealer. He attracts
Shirley with some strong drugs that lead to addiction. Shirley has addiction problems that Luke uses
to his advantage.

Similar Books

The Beach by Alex Garland – The Beach is probably the closest book
to Beyond Na Pali, BNP. The Beach
also features a traveler who goes to a beautiful beach with other international
travelers when trouble starts. I wrote Beyond
Na Pali before reading The Beach.

Wild by Sheryl Strayed – Wild has similarities to BNP with backpacking and drug use
sprinkled throughout the book.

A Walk in the Woods by
Bill Bryson – Bryson’s famous book features backpacking and facing failure. BNP
has similar challenges for the main character in real settings.

Eat, Pray Love by
Elizabeth Gilbert – Gilbert’s spirit of adventure and falling in love have
similar themes in BNP.

The Mosquito Coast by
Paul Theroux – Theroux features a man going out into the woods to find himself in
a similar way in BNP.

On the Road by
Jack Kerouac – This classic travel book has similar themes with lots of sex and
drugs.

Book Summary

Beyond Na Pali starts
with Skyler Briggs being forced to take a drug test at work. Instead of failing
the drug test, Skyler decides to quit his job to keep his drug use off his
record and to stay out of rehab. With his newly found freedom, he decides to
backpack to the remote Kalalau Beach on the Na Pali Coast. He hopes to live the dream on the clothing
optional beach while getting high with a beautiful girl of his dreams.

After flying into Kauai, he meets
and falls in love with an Australian traveler Shirley who needs Skyler’s tent
and cooking gear. On the first night
out, they meet Luke, a marijuana grower who lives in the mountains illegally. While sleeping together that night, Shirley
and Skyler make passionate love for the first time. The next day, they continue hiking and watch
an old goat fall to his death off Crawler’s Ledge – the most dangerous part of
the trail. Skyler is afraid of heights
and experiences an awakening while slowly crossing the ledge. He makes it over
the “na pali”, Hawaiian for “the cliffs”, to meet Shirley on the other side.

They reach Kalalau Beach where
they meet interesting characters like naked Derek, statuesque Bruna and studdly
Pablo. Shirley and Skyler lead bonfire
parties and Shirley starts smoking weed at Skyler’s request. They live the dream and make love repeatedly
until Shirley develops an urinary tract infection. The infection causes Shirley to go off the
rails and Shirley moves out of Skyler’s tent to be taken care of by Bruna.
Pablo hikes to town to get a prescription for Shirley.

After catching and cooking a
goat, Shirley leads a luau and Luke gets Shirley to start smoking crystal meth.
It’s all downhill from there.

Audience for Beyond Na Pali

Beyond Na Pali appeals to
readers who want an exciting adventure to exciting places inside and out. The drama, drugs and romance appeal to a
crowd that wants more out of life. The book will have particular appeal to
marijuana users and backpackers – often the same people. Men will have a higher
predilection to the book because of the protagonist Skyler and the outdoor
adventure. Many people will relate to
Skyler’s desire to find something more in life than can be found behind a desk.